She served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Assistant to the United States Solicitor General. At the time of her confirmation to the federal bench, she was among the most accomplished Supreme Court advocates in the United States, having argued nine cases and briefed more than twenty-five before the Court.

Pillard's nomination to the D.C. Circuit, along with the nominations of Robert L. Wilkins and Patricia Ann Millett, ultimately became central to the debate over the use of the filibuster in the United States Senate, leading to the controversial use of the nuclear option to bring it to the floor for a vote. She was narrowly confirmed by a vote of 51-44, with her detractors labeling her as one of the most liberal nominees to the federal bench in decades.[1]

In 1994, Pillard joined the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, where she briefed and argued civil and criminal cases on behalf of the federal government before the U.S. Supreme Court.[3] She joined the tenure-track faculty at Georgetown Law in 1997.[3]

In 1998, Pillard was named Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.[3] That office provides authoritative legal advice to the President and all the Executive Branch agencies, including review of all executive orders and orders of the Attorney General.[5]

Pillard returned to Georgetown Law in 2000, where she received tenure.[3] Pillard has taught more than a dozen different courses and seminars, and frequently teaches the core civil procedure and constitutional law courses.[3][6] Pillard also served as faculty director of Georgetown Law's Supreme Court Institute, a public service program that provides free assistance to attorneys preparing for arguments before the Supreme Court on a first-come, first-served basis.[7] In the 2012 term, the program held moot courts for counsel in 100% of cases argued before the Court.[7]

Pillard supports fair and efficient private settlement of legal disputes through negotiation, mediation and arbitration. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association, and has been a board member there since 2005.[8]

Pillard served as Chair and an active reader on an American Bar Association Reading Committee that evaluated all of the writings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. The committee found Alito “well qualified” to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.[9]

Pillard has argued nine cases and briefed more than twenty-five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, making her one of the nation's most accomplished Supreme Court advocates.[3][10] Some of her landmark victories are now staples of law school textbooks.[11]

While a member of the Georgetown Law faculty, Pillard successfully defended the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) against constitutional challenge in another landmark case, Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs.[13] Pillard represented William Hibbs, a state employee who was fired when he sought to take unpaid leave to care for his injured wife under the FMLA. Pillard, together with the United States Justice Department during the administration of President George W. Bush, which intervened to defend the law, argued that state employees should be able to rely on the FMLA. In a decision by then-Chief Justice Rehnquist, the Court ruled for Hibbs and upheld the FMLA’s application to state employees as a valid exercise Congress’s constitutional powers.

Representing the United States in Ornelas v. United States, Pillard won a significant victory for law enforcement, leading to clearer legal guidance to federal, state, and local officials conducting searches and seizures.[14] In an opinion by then-Chief Justice Rehnquist, the Court held that independent review of probable cause determinations by appellate courts was necessary to ensure the development and consistent application of search and seizure rules.

In other noteworthy cases representing the United States, Pillard sought robust “qualified immunity” protection of law enforcement personnel against lawsuits, shielding officials from the burdens of litigation and liability for reasonable decisions even where, in hindsight, they turned out to be wrong.[15] She also successfully argued that the Constitution reserves the jury right in criminal cases to defendants charged with serious offenses.[16]

On November 7, 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid moved to invoke cloture on Pillard's nomination, in an attempt to cut off a filibuster from Republican senators.[19] On November 12, 2013, the Senate rejected the motion to invoke cloture by a vote of 56-41, with 1 senator voting "present".[20] Conservatives attacked her references to maternity as "conscription",[21] among other statements, in objecting to her confirmation.[22][23][24]

After the Senate moved forward in November 2013 with a rules change eliminating the filibuster on federal appeals court nominees, the Senate on December 10, 2013 voted 56-42 to invoke cloture on Pillard's nomination. That paved the way for a final floor vote on Pillard's nomination. Shortly before 1 a.m. on December 12, 2013, the Senate confirmed Pillard in a 51-44 vote.[25] On December 17, 2013, Pillard received her federal judicial commission.[26]

Pillard is the daughter of Boston University psychiatry professor Richard Pillard and Cornelia Cromwell Tierney. She is married to Georgetown law professor and current ACLU Legal Director David D. Cole and has two children, Sarah and Aidan Pillard.

^See Statement of Stephen L. Tober concerning the Nomination of Honorable Samuel L. Alito to be Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Jan. 12, 2006)